Kamen Rider Hibiki
is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the fifteenth installment in the popular Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu programs. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei. ''Kamen Rider Hibiki first aired on January 30, 2005 and aired its final episode on January 22, 2006. It aired alongside for Super Hero Time 2005. This series is noted for introducing new themes and styles yet unseen in other shows. The catchphrase for the series is . Story The Kamen Riders, known as , battle man eating beasts called Makamou with "pure sound". One of the Oni, a man named Hibiki ends up having a teacher and apprentice-like relationship with Asumu Adachi. A young boy unsure of himself and is at a crossroads in his life as he transitions to high school, Asumu learns to be an adult through watching Hibiki and the other Oni as they all train together to hone their skills in fighting the Makamou and the homunculi aiding them. However, the sudden raise of Makamou numbers proves to be a prelude to an upcoming calamity. Originally not a Rider? According to producer Shigenori Takatera's assistant , due to the toy sales of Kamen Rider Blade being lower than 's , the successor of Blade was originally considered as a reboot of the 1972 Toei tokusatsu under the title . Like Kamen Rider, Arashi is one of the heroes created by Shotaro Ishinomori. Takatera said it was the first step to "wake up" Ishinomori and Toei's classic heroes and build a Japanese version of Disney. Later he changed the title to and started to set the basic settings of this ninja vs. yokai style tokusatsu show, including disk-like animals, yokai, taiko music, demon hunters, and master & apprentice. This resulted in the style of Hibiki being completely different than most entries of the Kamen Rider Series. However, when the basic setting was done, Bandai thought they should keep using the title "Kamen Rider" for merchandising. Takatera's team had to adapt all their early settings to a Kamen Rider look-a-like series , which finally became Kamen Rider Hibiki. Kataoka, Chikara. (2007) Circumstances of "Masked Rider Hibiki" - How documents and heroes are "set". Japan: Gogatsu Shobō. ISBN 9784772704625 Staff changes Kamen Rider Hibiki began with Shigenori Takatera as the Toei producer, however, Shinichiro Shirakura, who though having participated in other Heisei Kamen Rider series, had no involvement whatsoever in the Hibiki production, was appointed producer of the movie Kamen Rider Hibiki and the Seven War Demons, eventually replacing Takadera in the TV production from episode 30. The writing staff also changed; Tsuyoshi Kida and Shinji Ooishi were replaced by Toshiki Inoue and Shouji Yonemura, who had worked with Shirakura in and other Heisei Kamen Rider series. In addition, personalities such as Sensha Yoshida, a renowned manga artist; Hiroshi Yamamoto, a video-game designer; Masao Higashi, a seasoned television and movie critic; and many others published severe criticisms in their personal blogs because of this. Even the show's star, Shigeki Hosokawa, who portrayed Hibiki, stated in his personal website that Inoue’s scripts "needed adjustments" and that this whole staff change was "fraudulent". With the first production staff, Hosokawa would join the writers meetings and give suggestions, however Hosokawa could not give his opinion in the second production staff meetings due to time restraints. In an interview published on TV Asahi's main website, Hosokawa stated that the script for the final episode was rewritten on the final day of filming. He later said that the script was sent in so late that it arrived on set as the final battle was being filmed. This finale was scrapped and then a new ending that, according to Hosokawa, was nothing like the intended ending, was filmed. Later in the interview, Hosokawa said that the Oni suit used by Kiriya was a kitbash of two new suits made especially for the characters of Asumu and Kiriya. Hosokawa said that this was the most upsetting change to him as the final script had been rewritten six times at that point and all but the filmed version contained both Asumu and Kiriya becoming Oni. In January 2006, at the Kamen Rider Super Live, Hosokawa stated that the series was "essentially an incomplete process" and that "it should not have ended that way". Mitsu Murata, who portrayed the Douji characters, declared on his blog: "I cannot forgive them, I want to continue his idea", complaining about the removal of Takadera as producer. These declarations caused an unprecedented storm within the professional tokusatsu market and many of Toei's executives were berated for allowing a series to be handled in such a manner. There has never been any official statement from Toei, but many critics point out several facts might have caused it, the main reason being the low toy sales. It is not usual for a Toei production to have two different producers for the TV series and the movie. It is likely that a different producer was appointed for the movie because Toei was suffering from schedule problems with Takatera. Changes *Asumu's opening narration at the start of every episode was removed. *A new opening was introduced in episode 34 and following. *The use of kanji being flashed on screen during scenes was removed altogether. *The ending sequence was removed altogether. *The characters of Kyousuke Kiriya and Shuki were introduced to the series. *Originally Eiki and Shouki were both supposed to be main cast members, but had their parts completely removed. *The fire breathing (Onibi) and the Oni claws (Onizume) abilities' sequences were completely removed along with Ibuki opening his mouth for his attack. The Makamou that opened their mouths too wide or spurted liquids were also removed. There had been complaints about these sequences from parent advocacy groups who claimed that they scared children. *Things as complicated-to-animate CG Makamou and shooting in mountains were almost entirely reduced probably due to cost issues, leading critics to believe that Takadera was forcefully removed from the project due to his unwillingness to change his script to adapt to these changes. Characters Oni TV Show Movie/Special-exclusive Stageshow-exclusive *Kamen Rider Yūki S.I.C. Hero Saga-exclusive Novel-exclusive *Kamen Rider Saki - Saki *Kamen Rider Kido - Kido *Kamen Rider Shokuki - Mentioned/Suit only *Akatsuki - Tsutomu Tsumura *Michibiki *Kachidoki *Genki *Yamabuki Allies *Asumu Adachi *Hitomi Mochida *Ikuko Adachi Takeshi *Ichiro Tachibana *Kasumi Tachibana *Hinaka Tachibana *Midori Takizawa *Kōnosuke Kogure Makamou *The Man and Woman Giant types *Tsuchigumo **Kaengumo *Yamabiko *Bakegani **Amikiri *Ittanmomen *Ooari *Otoroshi *Nurikabe *Ubume *Yamaarshi *Oonamazu *Kamaitachi *Notsugo *Orochi Summer types *Dorotabou *Kappa *Bakeneko *Tengu *Uwan *Yobuko *Kaendaishou *Makamou Ninja Group *Hitotsumi Experimental types *Nanashi *Yoroi Tsuchigumo *Kasha *Yobuko *Satori *Rokurokubi Others *Kodama *Okubi *Bakekarasu *Wanyūdō *Omukade *Onyuudou Episodes Other media Manga # # S.I.C. Hero Saga #Seven Ogres'' Novels # # Cast * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : ** Parent Douji : Sei Ashina * : ** Parent Hime : Mitsu Murata * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : Songs '''Opening themes' * ** Composition & Arrangement: Toshihiko Sahashi ** Episodes: 1-33, 48 * ** Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi ** Composition: Toshihiko Sahashi ** Artist: ** Episodes: 34-47 Ending theme * ** Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi ** Composition: Toshihiko Sahashi ** Artist: ** Episodes: 1-33, 48 Notes *In the original show, the logo used was vertically oriented with the words read from top to bottom. In other media, however, a horizontal version of the logo was used. *All of the riders in this series never shout "Henshin" or any other shout, except for a few of the movie-exclusive riders who call out their Rider name when transforming. *So far, this is the only Heisei season where none of the Riders featured (even the main Rider) use a belt to transform. *All of the Rider weapons are based on music instruments. *All the names of the Kamen Riders from this series end with the letters "ki". *Many episodes of the series use a song dialogue (for example to Hibiki). *This is the second series of Kamen Rider where the transformation destroys the heroes' clothing. The first is Shin. *This is the only Heisei series without a female protagonist. *The series has a few references to the original show: **The organization Takeshi that helps the Oni is the same as the first name of the first Kamen Rider. **The founder of Takeshi 200 years ago in the movie was a man named Tobei Tachibana and the Tachibanas regularly aid the Riders like the original Tobei Tachibana did for Kamen Rider 1. **Kamen Rider Ibuki uses the power of wind to transform and rides a motorcycle in the early episodes of the show. *Excluding A.R. World Riders, this series has the most Riders appear with 30 (including the riders that appear in expanded material). It is followed by ''Gaim'' with 25 (excluding all Bujin Riders except Bujin Gaim) and ''Ryuki'' with 17 (excluding Abyss, who is ''Decade''-exclusive). **If counted by on-screen appearance though, Hibiki's amount of Riders at 23 is one less than the total amount of Gaim, as Hibiki had to exclude 6 stage show Riders and 1 SIC Hero Rider while Gaim had to exclude one Rider only. *This is the only series not to feature Seiji Takaiwa as the suit actor for the Heisei-era Main Rider since Agito, due to his role in the concurrently airing as the suit actor for . *This was the only season to have an opening theme song with no lyrics, Kagayaki, which was the theme in the first portion of the series. External links *'' '' at *[http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/仮面ライダー響鬼 Kamen Rider Hibiki] at Japanese Wikipedia *Official website from TV Asahi *Official Game Web Site Category:Kamen Rider Series Category:Heisei era